Orange County home prices fell 8% in January from December, while home sales dropped 25% from a month earlier as most potential buyers and sellers opted to wait out the ongoing turbulence in the real estate market.
The median price of an Orange County home was $520,000 in January, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.
Median prices here are down 13% from a year ago, and are off 19% from Orange County’s record high of $645,000, set last June.
Sales in the county were off 46% from a year earlier, with 1,286 home sales in January.
Across Southern California, it was the slowest month for home sales in more than 20 years, according to DataQuick. The 9,983 sales seen across the Southland is a 45% drop from year-ago levels.
The median price of a Southern California home was $415,000 in January, a 14% decrease from a year ago. It’s the lowest level seen in three years, and is off $90,000 from the market’s peak of last summer, according to DataQuick.
Sales financed by jumbo loans of more than $417,000 made up 19% of Southland sales last month. A year ago, jumbo loans made up 38% of sales.
